There’s a lot we know about eggs: they are great for breakfast and you can cook them in different ways. One topic of debate, however, is why brown chicken eggs usually cost more than white ones. According to Shaman Hickman, the director of Community Outreach and Education for Hickman's Family Farms, genetics (基因学) not nutrition determines the eggshell colour and thus the egg’s price.
The chicken breed (品种) and their genetics decide whether or not hens have pigment (色素) genes, which coat the egg and result in a coloured shell during the egg-laying process. Although all eggs start out white in colour, shell colour can range from white to brown and even blue in some rare breeds, Hickman adds. Breeds such as the Leghorn chicken lay white eggs, while the Orpington lays brown eggs and the Ameraucana produces blue eggs.
Hickman notes that the Leghorn breed is the most efficient egg-laying hen, making it a popular choice for farmers. Hens that produce coloured eggshells, however, tend to be larger and require more feed and energy to create that painted layer. Since those breeds cost more to feed, their eggs are more expensive.
Although eggs sometimes look different and are priced differently, it’s impossible to know their nutritional make-up from the shell colour alone, according to Malkani, media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Choosing between brown and white eggs is a matter of personal preference,” she says. “But it's important for people to know that the colour of the eggshell has nothing to do with the egg’s nutrient content or shell thickness.”
What does affect the nutrient content is the specific diet the hen is on, according to Malkani. For example, hens fed with a diet with omega-3s and vitamin D produce eggs that are higher in those specific nutrients. No matter what your preference is, don’t judge an egg by its shell colour.
【小题1】Which of the following is one of the arguments about eggs in Paragraph One?| A．Why Brown eggs are much cheaper. | B．How eggs can be cooked healthily. |
| C．Why coloured eggs are more expensive. | D．Whether brown eggs are great for breakfast. |
| A．The size of the hen. | B．The hen’s breed. |
| C．The colour of the eggs inside. | D．The environment of the laying process. |
| A．They are productive. | B．Their eggs are larger. |
| C．They lay brown eggs. | D．Their eggs sell better. |
| A．It takes efforts to test eggs’ nutrition. |
| B．It’s meaningless to study an egg’s colour. |
| C．Personal preference matters a lot in choice-making. |
| D．An egg's nutrition is closely related to the hen’s feed. |
How to keep your pets cool this summer
It’s not just humans who struggle with the high temperatures of summer; our pets do, too. Many people worry about how to prevent pets from feeling the heat too badly.
Below are some tips to help you keep your pets cool and safe all summer long.
Leave the air conditioning on
You tend to turn off your air conditioning when you leave the house to save money.
If you’re a dog owner, it’s vital that you walk your dog early in the day before the sun has a chance to get to its full strength. You can also try late night walks, but it usually doesn’t cool down until long after the sun has set, so early morning is generally more convenient.
Put in a pool
Placing a paddling pool in a shady spot in your backyard lets your dog have more outdoor time without overheating.
Make water available at all times
On a hot day, your pet must have access to water at all times to help keep cool and drink water in time because your pet is likely to drink more.
| A．Walk your dog early |
| B．Luckily, there’s plenty we can do |
| C．Try to keep your dog staying in shades |
| D．Put out an extra water bowl for your dog |
| E．It is important for your dog to drink clean water |
| F．However, your pets will need it while you’re out |
| G．You should choose a dog pool rather than an inflatable(充气的) pool |
Are you interested in working with animals? Now here comes the CHANCE. Kirby Wildlife Park has set up the unique Keeper Experience package. The fantastic experience is available to anyone over the age of 18 who is reasonably fit. We regret that for health and safety reasons, participants who are pregnant, in a wheelchair or suffering from illnesses cannot take part.
A typical day
9:15 Arrival 9:30 Health and Safety Briefing
10:00 Apes and Monkeys
While cleaning out the enclosure (围场) you will find out about how enclosures are enriched with novel items and new smells to stimulate the animals’ senses and imitate their natural environment.
12:00 Lunch 14:00 Big Cats
As one of the highlights of this volunteer experience, you will feed the cats and learn about their nutritional needs. The keeper will give you an introduction to how cat behavior can be read to get an idea of their welfare and health.
16:30 Meet the Team
Meet more of the staff and learn how you can get further involved with work at the park. Learn about our animal adoption plan, what it takes to be a good keeper and where to obtain the right qualifications for a career in animal welfare.
Booking and cancellation
The Keeper Experience is available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, and must be booked at least two weeks in advance. Full payment is needed when booking.
Cancellations must be made more than fourteen days before the event. Otherwise, you won′t receive a full refund.
【小题1】What kind of people can experience working with animals in Kirby Wildlife Park?| A．A pregnant woman. | B．A man who is quite healthy. |
| C．A teenager sitting in a wheelchair. | D．A student under the age of 18. |
| A．a booking should be made over two weeks before the event |
| B．people are allowed to cancel a booking with a full refund at any time |
| C．cancellations need to be made on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays |
| D．participants can have the unique experience every day throughout the year |
| A．Bathe animals. | B．Buy an animal |
| C．Feed apes and monkeys. | D．Create natural environment for animals. |
Turn on a light outside at night, and it won’t be long before lots of insects start gathering around it. This behavior has led to a popular comparison for attraction, “like a moth to a flame.” However, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, it turns out that insects aren’t “attracted” to artificial lights, but rather confused by it.
The new finding is based on a theory about insect orientation (定位). Due to their small and lightweight bodies, insects experience less air resistance, allowing them to achieve higher accelerations (加速度), which in turn makes it challenging for them to sense up and down during flight. So, they typically rely on stable light sources like the moon and stars to orient themselves at night, keeping the sky at their backs to stay upright. However, the introduction of artificial lights confuses their natural sense of direction. The insects you see circling street lights, in other words, are probably lost.
To reach these conclusions, scientists used high-resolution cameras to film insects flying around artificial lights in Costa Rica. They also attached tiny sensors to insects and filmed motion-capture videos of them in flight. In this way, researchers can slow down the insects pace and study their movements in greater detail. The videos showed insects turning their backs toward sources of artificial light — even at the price of flipping over or crashing.
This can be dangerous for insects, as circling around artificial lights can put them at risk from enemies, exhaustion, and starvation, causing many to die before morning. Night artificial light is a major cause of insect population loss, which could severely impact crop pollination and food supplies for larger animals, including humans. “Insects have been flying around for 370 million years, and it’s just in the last 150 years that it’s really gone wrong for them,” says entomologist Samuel Fabian of Imperial College London. “If we don’t want to influence large amounts of insect populations, we should not have lights shining up into the sky.”
【小题1】What have scientists found out about insects?| A．Artificial lights can disturb their sense of direction. |
| B．Their populations are in decline. |
| C．They often fly quickly during the night. |
| D．Their eyesight is well adapted to light changes. |
| A．By detecting the living environment of insects. |
| B．By monitoring the insects’ brain activity during flight. |
| C．By making videos to study insects’ movements. |
| D．By building models to analyze insects’ motion patterns. |
| A．To stress the importance of insects to food supplies. |
| B．To appeal to people to reduce light pollution. |
| C．To show the reasons for insects flying around lights. |
| D．To explain the effects of insects’ death on human life. |
| A．How Artificial Lights Impact the Ecosystem |
| B．What Leads to the Loss of Insect Populations |
| C．How Insects Orient Themselves in the Flight |
| D．Why Insects are Attracted to Lights at Night |
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